1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an information input apparatus which is suitable for use in an electronic musical instrument, and more particularly to an information input apparatus of this kind which is small in size and affords efficient information inputting.
2. Prior Art
In general, an operating element, such as a keyboard, is used for inputting non-electronic performance data, such as a musical score and a musical piece composed by an operator, to an electronic musical instrument. However, skill is required to operate the key board or the like as desired, which makes it difficult for unskilled operators to input the performance data in an efficient manner. To overcome this inconvenience, the present assignee has proposed by Japanese Utility Model Publication (Kokoku) No. 4-10637 an apparatus which displays a staff or stave and a cursor on a display, the cursor being moved as desired by operating a mouse or the like to insert desired notes at desired locations, thereby inputting performance data to an electronic musical instrument.
On the other hand, with recent progress of integrated circuit technology, components of an electronic musical instrument, such as a tone generator and a memory device, have become markedly reduced in size while requiring far less consumption of electric power for operation. Therefore, it is now possible to design an electronic musical instrument which is compact in size enough to use as a portable type, insofar as it is only required to store performance data and generate musical tones based on the stored performance data by the musical instrument. However, to design an electronic musical instrument which also has a function of inputting performance data, it is still difficult to reduce the size of the electronic musical instrument. That is, if a keyboard is used as means for inputting performance data, the total size of the instrument necessarily increases due to the use of the keyboard which has a fairly large size in general. Further, if a mouse, which is small in size itself, is used as means for inputting performance data, it requires a large flat area for operation thereon, making it almost impracticable to use the whole electronic musical instrument as a portable type.
Further, to input performance data, a display is required to monitor contents of performance data having been input, and hence it is also necessary to reduce the size of the display.